One of the things you immediately discover about composer Yiheng Yvonne Wu is she has a high regard for honesty. It’s important enough that she followed up a lengthy face-to-face discussion about her music with an email clarifying exactly what she meant by “honesty”:

“Art that strikes me as honest is art that attempts to engage with something ‘true’ to the human experience,” wrote Wu, whose “Transcriptions of Place” will be premiered by the La Jolla Symphony on Saturday and Sunday at UC San Diego.

“Of course there is no single ‘truth,’ but an artist’s commitment to his/her subjectivity is part of what makes the work honest: it commits to a personal truth. It is one humble attempt to grapple with the larger thing that is shared human experience.

“Powerful moments in art, for me, come from recognizing this kind of honesty. (Exactly how the articulation of ‘personal truth’ happens in music is hard to say, but ‘honesty’ is an attitude. It’s an endeavor that motivates me.)”

Wu, who was born in Taiwan, raised in Virgina, and now lives in San Diego with her husband, artist Karl Pilato, has always aspired to be honest, especially with herself.

While a high-achieving high school senior aiming toward a career in science, she took some college classes in chemistry at William & Mary, but something didn’t feel right.

“About a month into that school year, I realized I didn’t care enough about science,” she said. “I was doing really well; I even got a top score on the first exam. But it totally just hit one day — wow, I don’t have the passion for this.”

She also played piano, so she decided to fill out her schedule with a music composition class at William & Mary, “just for fun.” But it was that experience that kindled her passion. She realized that, in all honesty, she wanted to be a composer.

“I felt then, as I do now: Music is challenging in the best possible way,” Wu said. “It’s worthy of a lifetime of commitment, meaning it’s so deeply interesting you can never be done with understanding it.”

Still, she had to be sure, especially about being a composer. So after graduating from Yale with a composition degree, she spent six years teaching piano while she considered whether she wanted to pursue composing.

She wanted to be honest about it: Was composing a necessity or was it just another option?

“I loved teaching, and teaching piano brings a lot of joy,” she said. “It’s such a privilege to teach one on one, and I mostly teach young children.

“But I did learn that teachers are obliged to keep their own fire going and that, ultimately, doing creative work is the best way for me to engage with music — to really sink my teeth into music and not to sit back and just do what’s easy.”